In recent years, the capabilities of various telephone communication networks in North America as well as the capabilities of various devices that may communicate through the most modern networks have developed at an almost exponential pace. Many homes have broadband connectivity for video and Internet access services instead of or in addition to traditional telephone service. Many families also have several mobile devices for voice calls, for various messaging functions and for multimedia communications. Mobile networks also offer wireless broadband data connectivity. To support such communications, each end point or device requires an address, for example, a telephone number of the like.
The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is the numbering plan originally developed for the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) for Canada, the US and its territories, and the Caribbean. In North America, NANP compliant telephone numbers are used for routing of traditional telephone calls through landline and wireless networks as well as telephone calls through various packet or broadband networks. However, many other communications today utilize telephone type numbers under NANP as source and destination addresses through the various networks.
For example, currently, anything that uses a wireless internet connection, including computers, cell phones, etc., is identified by the network using a unique assigned telephone type number As the U.S. moves to 4G service, more and more devices, such as onboard navigation systems, iPads, TVs, and other products are being developed with features that allow these products to connect to the wireless internet. This function enables each device to not only communicate via voice, but also via email, SMS messages, or MMS messages. As such, the supply of existing telephone number is decreasing rapidly.
Hence a need exists for a new dialing plan that will substantially increase the available amount of device or end point addresses, to meet the ever increasing demand.